May 2011

The Circus at the PSC Continues…

by Don Pogreba on May 31, 2011 · 2 comments

in Montana Politics

Republican Commissioners Bill Gallagher, Travis Kavulla, and Brad Molnar continued the very important work of attacking each other and trading ethics violations allegations at today’s Public Service Commission meeting. Once again, a work session was called by Commissioner Gallagher to discuss “whether Commissioner Kavulla’s trip to Las Vegas to meet with utility investors may have been in violation of PSC rules or other applicable rules.”

In today’s continuance of a previous work session, Commissioner Kavulla presented a memo answering the questions he deemed relevant to Commissioner Gallagher’s concerns about the trip. Following another contentious debate and an accusation by Commissioner Molnar that the PSC was “breaking the law” by voting, Kavulla’s questions were accepted on a 3-2 vote.

I honestly don’t think there is much to the allegations being raised by Gallagher and Molnar; they strike me as nothing more than an attempt to get back at Kavulla for the battle over the chairmanship. I’m not convinced that visiting with utility investors is an appropriate trip for a PSC commissioner to take, but there’s little evidence that the speaking engagement violated the law or PSC rules.

That being said, voters deserve to know about these competing claims—and the press should cover them.

The media’s in a hard spot here, I realize. Gallagher is making a series of allegations without much substantiation, but the continued infighting is newsworthy, as is Gallagher’s choice to spend this much PSC time pursuing Commissioner Kavulla. Commissioner Kavulla referred to the ongoing work sessions “attempts to obstruct [the PSC] and defame a member of the Commission.” Even conceding that this claim slipped into the hyperbolic, repeated, ongoing accusations by and about public officials of law breaking, obstruction and defamation deserve coverage.

Denny Rehberg Values Corporate Donations More than Government Transparency

by Don Pogreba on May 27, 2011 · 12 comments

in 2012 Senate Race, Denny Rehberg, Montana Politics

Joining all but one of this Republican colleagues, Representative Rehberg voted Wednesday night to allow major government contractors to keep campaign contributions secret:

Transparency of campaign financing by government contractors is nothing new. At the federal level, contractors have been disclosing their political action committee contributions for decades, and more than a dozen states impose special campaign finance reporting requirements on state contractors.

But the simple act of making public the amount of money government contractors are throwing at politicians who help award those contracts is apparently still too much for congressional Republicans, many of whom are the primary beneficiaries of secret corporate slush funds and do not want the American public to know that.

As a result, in the dead of night, the House voted to approve the unrelated Cole rider to the defense authorization bill.

Certainly interesting, given how often Representative Rehberg bleats about the need fro transparency when it comes to government action and spending.  Look at his own statements:

  • “Montanans expect and deserve a new level of government transparency that wasn’t possible when the Antiquities Act was first created more than a century ago”
  • “Transparency is an essential part of any government that derives its authority from the consent of the people,” said Rehberg, a member of the House Labor Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee.
  • “I think Montanans would be outraged to learn that huge national special interest groups with multi-million dollar endowments are bankrolling thousands of lawsuits with tax dollars meant for small businesses, individuals and non-profits,” said Rehberg a member of the House Western Caucus.  “It’s one thing to have access to the courts, but it’s another to force taxpayers to pay for it.  Since 1995, the federal government has inexplicably stopped tracking how it spends these funds, and it’s time to restore the transparency and accountability.”

The lesson? Representative Rehberg wants “transparency” when it suits his political needs but doesn’t believe it should apply to him or the massive companies funneling campaign contributions to support members of Congress.

The only thing transparent about all of this are his motives. But why should Rehberg care? The Montana media certainly won’t report on this latest hypocritical vote.

Rehberg Votes Against the Elderly and the Gazette Covers For Him

by Don Pogreba on May 25, 2011 · 10 comments

in 2012 Senate Race, Denny Rehberg, Montana Politics, The Media

A piece in yesterday’s Billings Gazette offered another striking example of incredibly lazy national political reporting in Montana. The piece, a discussion about the growing problem of elder abuse and neglect in Montana, discussed the need to fund 2010′s Elder Justice Act. According to the article, there were over 5,000 cases of neglect, abuse, and exploitation of elderly Montanans in 2010 alone.

Bob Blancato of the National Elder Justice Coalition specifically suggested that people call Representative Rehberg’s office to push for funding the bill, given Rehberg’s role as chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education.

Representative Rehberg’s spokesman Jed Link was given space to offer this quote:

“Protecting vulnerable, elderly Montanans is a top priority for Denny, which is why he used his authority last year to preserve funding for programs to combat elder abuse. While Washington needs to tighten its belt, Denny will continue to do everything he can as chairman to make responsible investments in federal programs that work for Montana.”

What the story fails to mention is that Rehberg actually VOTED AGAINST the Elder Justice Act discussed in the story. Rehberg is not only failing to fight for funds to combat elder abuse, but he voted against a bill designed to protect them.

The bill Rehberg voted against included this provision that would have been quite helpful for those Montanans he claims are a “top priority”: Special programs to support underserved populations including rural, minority and Indian seniors.

It seems like a program that would “work for Montana” to me. Voting against protecting the elderly, against Medicare, and against Senior Corps hardly sounds like the record of someone interested in protecting Montana seniors.

I didn’t attend journalism school or anything, but it seems to me that doing a 15 second Google search to confirm how a Representative actually voted on a bill would be a bit more newsworthy than asking his communications director for another platitudinous remark.

Reporting on how a member of Congress actually voted and what he actually said doesn’t constitute writing “gotcha” stories; it describes journalism–and would be nice to see some of it practiced more frequently by newspapers in the state when it comes to our Congressional delegation.

A Rough Cut of the “Meet Ken Miller” Video

by Don Pogreba on May 25, 2011 · 2 comments

in 2012 Statewide, Ken Miller, Montana Politics

While some have unfairly criticized the somnolent and ponderous delivery of Republican Ken Miller’s introductory campaign video, the crack research staff at Intelligent Discontent has discovered a rough cut of the video which demonstrates just how far Miller has come towards his goal of appearing like an actual human.

Enjoy!

Ken Miller Has Issues

by Don Pogreba on May 25, 2011 · 4 comments

in 2012 Statewide, Ken Miller, Montana Politics

While it doesn’t have the super-secret cachet of Neil Livingstone’s spy page nor its weekly recipes, I certainly enjoyed my brief tour of the Ken Miller for Governor web page this morning.

Mr. Miller’s list of issues is a collection of buzzwords and catchphrases no doubt intended to appeal to the Montaniban members who will no doubt determine the GOP nominee for governor, featuring time-worn clichés like promises to:

  • Eliminate frivolous lawsuits (watch out Denny Rehberg!)
  • Reform Montana Constitution to pro-business document.
  • Require English as official language (How dare native peoples speak their own language?).
  • Require drug test for entitlements (but not, apparently, for gubernatorial candidates).

I’m sure that Miller’s vague neo-conservative language will find broad appeal in his increasingly extremist party, but he may want to rethink this item:

Reject Federalism when harmful to state rights

Mr. Miller might want to look up what the term “federalism” means before continuing with that particular talking point.

I continue to be incredibly excited about this particular race. Watch each of these candidates move further Right to appeal to the fringe will be delightful.

Rob Natelson Has a Funny Idea About Women

by Don Pogreba on May 24, 2011 · 7 comments

in Montana Politics, Those Wacky Republicans

It’s quite likely that he has a number of peculiar (read antebellum) ideas about women, but I found this tidbit in his paean to Michelle Bachman too funny to ignore. He writes:

On the practical level in the TV age:  Bachmann easily pulls off the challenging feat of looking simultaneously traditionally-feminine and competent.

Strangely enough, I’ve never found it challenging for women to be both competent and “traditionally-feminine.” In fact, I think that both men and women can be quite competent no matter how they fit Professor Natelson’s outdated views on gender, sex, and appearance.

Rehberg Politics While Montana Floods

24 May 2011

For much of his career, it’s been easy to dismiss Dennis Rehberg nothing more than a political opportunist willing to change his ideology and political rhetoric as the ground underneath him shifts. In the past 15 months or so, he’s tried to change his tack, from being the undisputed King of Washington pork barrel spending [...]

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Senator Tester and Representative Rehberg on the Patriot Act

23 May 2011

Thanks, Senator Tester, for standing up for the Constitution: Long before I ever got to the Senate, the Patriot Act was sold to us as a toolbox of sorts to give U.S. agents the tools they need to find, fight and kill terrorists. But what we got from the Patriot Act was a law that [...]

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How Will Your Public Service Commission Be Spending Its Time Tomorrow?

23 May 2011

For some reason, I feel like this item on the agenda for May 24 will get more time and attention than it deserves: Commissioner Molnar – Request call information from Commissioner Gutsche’s and Commissioner Kavulla’s cell phones from the work session lunch break 4-15-2011 and Commissioner Gutsche’s cell phone from the recess 2 hours and [...]

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Bill Gallagher Levels Specific Allegations Against Commissioner Kavulla at PSC: Chairgate and Vegasgate!

20 May 2011

While it seems to have escaped the notice of the Montana media, the PSC work session on May 10th ended with Commissioner Bill Gallagher leveling accusations of ethics violations against Chairman Travis Kavulla. Gallagher claimed that Kavulla, in a trip to Las Vegas to speak to utility investors, violated the law in three ways: that [...]

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A Great Idea

18 May 2011

I don’t think I even knew this was possible – a petition to block the implementation of a law. If ever there was legislative session that needed this kind of citizen oversight, this one was it. Here’s the link – petitions are apparently in the works on both Medical Marijuana and Eminent Domain bills. http://helenair.com/news/article_6dd8799a-8115-11e0-9a6b-001cc4c03286.html [...]

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The Montana GOP Just Ran Over Credibility

16 May 2011

Let’s be honest. The Montana GOP is such an amateurish organization that it actually chose budding juvenile fiction auteur and anti-voting activist Will Deschamps as its chair, has a web page that was banned by Geocities for being too ugly for the web in 1997, and uses a series of short-lived astroturf blogs to regurgitate [...]

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